Assessing Tools for Coordinating Quality of Master Data in Inter-organizational Product Information Sharing

Product information sharing, i.e., inter-organizational transfer of master data relating to products, is a problematic, error-prone, labor-intensive, and costly process in many companies. This paper presents findings of a focus group interview and case studies at three wholesale trading companies that share product information with hundreds of suppliers. We identify and assess coordination mechanisms and tools used to facilitate product information sharing. Spreadsheet files, e-mail messages, telephone calls, and personal meetings are predominant coordination tools. EDI connections, product identification and classification standards, online product catalogs, and data pools are not widely adopted in the trading organizations covered by our study. Reasons for the low adoption rate are that employees responsible for master data quality are either unaware of these resources or that they are convinced that the tools are too cost-intensive or not flexible enough

The Relationship between Supply Chain Coordination and Quality Assurance Systems: A Case Study Approach on the German Meat Sector

The German meat industry faces a high demand for food safety and traceability. After several meat scandals in the recent past, efforts have to be made to regain consumer trust and to assure access to export markets. Apart from a few niche markets, there is no focal company in the German pork supply chain which efficiently coordinates food chain information, harmonizes the multiplicity of different IT systems or takes on professional public relations in charge of the whole sector. In cases of food crises, essential up- and downstream information slowly flows across the supply chain which hinders both seamless traceability and the harmonization of production processes between the various stages of the supply chain. This contribution focuses on the opportunities for more efficient coordination based on spot market environments. With reference to the theory of organization economics, a case study of the QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH as the leading certification scheme that addresses the German meat industry was carried out. Several non-classical certification activities which fall within the scope of coordination were identified with QS. Based on the assumption that the company continuously improves the coordination of the supply chain, there are opportunities for the meat sector as a whole which are pointed out in the conclusion.Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Managing Intellectual Property to Foster Agricultural Development

Over the past decades, consideration of IPRs has become increasingly important in many areas of agricultural development, including foreign direct investment, technology transfer, trade, investment in innovation, access to genetic resources, and the protection of traditional knowledge. The widening role of IPRs in governing the ownership of—and access to—innovation, information, and knowledge makes them particularly critical in ensuring that developing countries benefit from the introduction of new technologies that could radically alter the welfare of the poor. Failing to improve IPR policies and practices to support the needs of developing countries will eliminate significant development opportunities. The discussion in this note moves away from policy prescriptions to focus on investments to improve how IPRs are used in practice in agricultural development. These investments must be seen as complementary to other investments in agricultural development. IPRs are woven into the context of innovation and R&D. They can enable entrepreneurship and allow the leveraging of private resources for resolving the problems of poverty. Conversely, IPRs issues can delay important scientific advancements, deter investment in products for the poor, and impose crippling transaction costs on organizations if the wrong tools are used or tools are badly applied. The central benefit of pursuing the investments outlined in this note is to build into the system a more robust capacity for strategic and flexible use of IPRs tailored to development goals

Toward the Inter-organizational Product Information Supply Chain – Evidence from the Retail and Consumer Goods Industries

Since the 1980s, the retail and consumer goods industries have been making very extensive use of EDI-based data exchange and subsequently developed the vision of Efficient Consumer Response (ECR). In the meantime, a growing number of studies report that poor data quali¬ty, in particular out¬dated or wrong product information, negatively impacts demand and supply chain performance. Whereas prior literature intensively studied the positive effects of information sharing on the coordination of supply and demand, this research is aimed at establishing a basis for understanding the phenomena of the underlying inter-organizational product information supply chain. Using coordination theory as an overarching framework, the main research contribution is a set of dependencies, coordination problems, and coordination mechanisms that characterize the product information supply chain. From an analysis of two retailer-manufacturer relationships, we conclude that flow and sharing dependencies evolve into reciprocal dependencies as the intensity of demand and supply collaboration increases. We also find that industry standards ?notably Global Data Synchronization (GDS) ?do not yet fully cover the inter-organizational coordination requirements that result from the identified set of sharing and flow dependencies

The Mirroring Hypothesis: Theory, Evidence and Exceptions

The mirroring hypothesis predicts that the organizational patterns of a development project (e.g. communication links, geographic collocation, team and firm co-membership) will correspond to the technical patterns of dependency in the system under development. Scholars in a range of disciplines have argued that mirroring is either necessary or a highly desirable feature of development projects, but evidence pertaining to the hypothesis is widely scattered across fields, research sites, and methodologies. In this paper, we formally define the mirroring hypothesis and review 102 empirical studies spanning three levels of organization: within a single firm, across firms, and in open community-based development projects. The hypothesis was supported in 69% of the cases. Support for the hypothesis was strongest in the within-firm sample, less strong in the across-firm sample, and relatively weak in the open collaborative sample. Based on a detailed analysis of the cases in which the mirroring hypothesis was not supported, we introduce the concept of actionable transparency as a means of achieving coordination without mirroring. We present examples from practice and describe the more complex organizational patterns that emerge when actionable transparency allows designers to 'break the mirror.'Modularity, innovation, product and process development, organization design, design structure, organizational structure, organizational ties

Buyer-supplier partnership in agile supply chains: A conceptual view

The purpose of this paper focuses on achieving agility within the supply chain and seeks to examine the impact of developing an integrated buyer-supplier partnership on achieving agility. It also aims to investigate the moderating role played by information sharing and technology in achieving such a goal. Supply chain management and agility have both been received great attention in recent years. In a highly dynamic and complex business market place the customer is demanding more choice and companies need to possess the means to rapidly adjust to market changes in order to satisfy its customers in an effective manner. Agility has been introduced to the supply chain context to enable companies to face the business environmental changes and deal with them effectively. The methodological approach used in this paper is an analysis and critique to the existing literature, as an initial step for developing the empirical study for the paper